The Brooklyn Nets had their seven-game win streak snapped with a 114-106 loss to the Indiana Pacers at Barclays Center Friday night.
Rookie Rodions Kurucs led the Nets with a career-high 24 points, including 4-for-5 shooting from 3-point range.
But after coming back from a 15-point first half deficit, the Nets couldn't hold off Indiana's Victor Oladipo down the stretch. He scored eight straight Indiana points and 11 of 13 at one point to counter Brooklyn in crunch-time. Trailing 104-102, the Pacers put together a 9-0 run to take control of the game with under two minutes to go.
DeMarre Carroll had 16 for Brooklyn, Spencer Dinwiddie added 15 and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Joe Harris had 13 each. Jared Dudley and Jarrett Allen each scored 10.
The Nets shot 51.6 percent from 3-point range (16-31) with Harris, Dudley and Carroll making three each.
The Nets withstood Indiana's scorching early shooting and 59-point first half to stick within 10 points at the break.
The Pacers made 10 of their first 14 shots while jumping to a 23-13 lead six minutes into the game.
A quick 6-0 burst later in the quarter extended the Indiana lead to 35-20, its largest of the first half, with a minute to go in the quarter. D'Angelo Russell answered with a three for Brooklyn and Dinwiddie drew a foul in the final second of the quarter while flinging up a 3-point attempt off a Davis back-tap on a rebound. He made all three to bring the Nets within 37-27 at the end of the quarter.
The Nets got within seven points in the second quarter but no closer and the Pacers rode the combined 38 first-half points of Damontas Sabonis, Thaddeus Young and Bojan Bogdanovic (15-for 24 shooting combined) to a 59-49 lead at the break.
The Nets stormed into the lead in the third quarter while making their first seven 3-point attempts of the half.
Kurucs made two of the first three, and when Allen followed a Hollis-Jefferson 3-pointer with a rebound dunk in transition, the Nets were within 67-63 just 3:32 into the half. With the Pacers up 70-63, a 12-2 run pushed the Nets into the lead.
Harris opened with an inside basket and a 3-pointer and Dudley capped the burst with a pair of threes just 33 seconds apart for a 75-72 Brooklyn lead. The Nets went up 80-76 before Indiana closed the quarter with an 8-0 run to take an 84-80 lead into the fourth quarter.
With the Pacers up 89-84 early in the fourth, a 9-4 run capped by a Dinwiddie dunk off an Indiana turnover got the Nets even at 93 with 5:35 to go. Dinwiddie matched an Oladipo 3-pointer to knot the game again at 96 before a Harris 3-pointer and a Kurucs free throw put the Nets up 100-98 with under four minutes remaining.
UP NEXT
One more for the Nets before Christmas, against the Pacers on Sunday. Then they've got a home-and-home with the Hornets on Wednesday and Friday. The road game in Charlotte next Friday is the front end of a quick two-game, back-to-back road trip, with Milwaukee on the slate for the second night.